


Hanami Festival

by LilacChocolate



Series: Rin & Nitori [6]
Category: Free!
Genre: Festivals, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 19:23:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7281607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacChocolate/pseuds/LilacChocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin confesses his feelings to Ai at the Hanami festival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanami Festival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iguana_ism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iguana_ism/gifts).



Rin was in his bedroom at the Matsuoka house, straightening out his shirt in the mirror by the door. After the relay, he had finally made up with Haru and the others, and he was trying to get his life back to how it was before he left for Australia. That included spending more time at home with his mother and sister. And that had also included finally asking his roommate, Ai, out on a date. He could see just how much the younger boy liked him, and now Rin was starting to form feelings for the grey-haired boy, too. Rin had asked Ai to go to the Hanami festival in Iwatobi with him, but as fate would have it, Ai had presumed that they were only going as friends, which wasn’t surprising at all. Rin had treated Ai terribly, so as much as the younger boy wanted him, he probably thought there was no chance in hell of them getting together.

The red head sighed and grabbed a bobble from his desk, typing his hair up in a ponytail. He had caught Ai staring at him and blushing when he wore it like that. There was a knock on Rin’s bedroom door and his hands dropped to his sides. ‘Come in.’

Gou opened the door, a large grin on her face. ‘You ready for today?’

‘Of course.’

‘You don’t look it.’

Rin scowled at her and grabbed his phone, wallet and keys off his bed. ‘Shut up. Come on, train station, now. Or you can forget going on your date with Mikoshiba.’

The younger redhead rolled her eyes. ‘You look too nervous to even speak to Nitori-kun, let alone beat up Sei-senpai.’

The butterfly swimmer pushed his sister out of his room and followed her out into the hallway and down the stairs. ‘Bye, mum!’ They both shouted as they slipped on their shoes and left the house, heading for the Iwatobi train station. As they walked, Gou rambled on about swimming regimens and friends at school, and Rin just nodded along, too busy thinking about his roommate to reply. How would Rin confess to him? Could he do it? He stuffed his hands in his pockets with a sigh.

‘Onii-chan? What’s wrong?’

‘I don’t know how to confess to Ai.’

Gou smiled and linked her arm in her brother’s. ‘You’ll know when it’s the right time.’ They arrived at the station and waited for the train to arrive, Rin nervously tapping his foot. The train pulled into the station five minutes later and the Matsuoka siblings climbed on together.

Rin was a jittery mess all the way to Iwatobi, unable to decide whether he should sit down or stand up, if he should put his hands in his pockets. Gou scowled at him, having to pull her brother off the train to stop him from bailing on Ai.

Ai and Seijuro were stood in Iwatobi Station, having come down from Samezuka earlier to meet them. The two swimmers waved at the Matsuoka siblings, and Gou ran off immediately, Seijuro catching her in a hug.

Rin’s heart stuttered at the sight of Ai. He was wearing tight shorts and a t-shirt with a cute design on it, like usual. He was smiling at the redhead, a light blush dusting his cheeks. ‘Good afternoon, senpai.’ He said, bowing his head.

‘You don’t need to bow to me, Ai.’

‘Onii-chan!’ Gou shouted. ‘Can Sei and I walk on ahead?’

Rin nodded his head, scowling at the swim captain. ‘No funny business.’

‘Chill, Matsuoka.’ Seijuro and Gou walked hand in hand towards the seafront street, where the festival was being held, and Ai and Rin lagged behind, both too shy to speak.

‘You know,’ Ai said, making sure not to look at Rin, ‘I’ve never been to a festival before.’

‘What?! How can you have lived in Japan this long and not been to a festival?’

Ai just smiled and shrugged. ‘I’ve never really had anyone to go with me before.’

‘Then this was a good idea for our first date.’

Ai looked up at Rin then, face bright red.

Rin blushed, too, only just realising what he had said. ‘But it doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be. I know I’ve treated you like utter shit and I wouldn’t want to go on a date with me either and-’

‘Senpai,’ Ai interrupted, a small smile on his face, ‘I want to go on a date with you. I want this to be our date.’

The red-head smiled, his shoulders sagging with relief. ‘Thank you.’ They walked to the festival, chatting, this time, feeling more comfortable now that there had been a confession of sorts. The cherry blossoms at the sea front were in full bloom, and the two swimmers got sakura flavoured milkshakes, Rin insisting on paying for them.

‘You didn’t have to do that, senpai.’ Ai told him as he sipped at the light pink milk.

‘I know. But I wanted to.’

The happy smiles slipped off their faces when they heard a little boy crying near a stall. Rin strode over to him and Ai followed.

‘Hey, what’s wrong, little man?’ Rin asked, crouching down.

‘I don’t know where my mummy is.’ He cried louder and Ai shushed him softly, handing him his milkshake.

‘Here, have some of this. We’ll look after you until your mummy comes, okay?’

The little boy nodded and Ai picked him up, resting the little boy on his hip, his face still streaked with tears but now sucking the milkshake through a straw.

‘Let’s walk around this area.’ Rin suggested. ‘His mum can’t have gone far.’

The couple circled the few stalls a couple of times, finally stopping at one of the stalls to ask. Rin asked the owner if anyone had been looking for a little boy, but he had shaken his head. Rin went back over to Ai, ready to tell him the bad news, but the boy’s mother was put out of the child’s head when he saw a teddy that he wanted. ‘Fishy!’

Both men looked at the stall, seeing it was one you knocked bottles over with wooden rings to win prizes. Rin stepped back up to the stall, fishing 500 yen out of his wallet. The stall owner handed him the rings and Rin knocked over a tower of bottles without wasting any shots.

‘What teddy would you like?’ Rin asked the little boy still balanced on Ai’s hip.

‘Orange fishy!’

Rin glanced back at the stall, seeing a small clown fish teddy hung up at the back of the display. ‘The clown fish, please.’

The stall owner handed it over to him and Rin gave it to the boy. He grinned at Rin, several of his teeth missing. ‘Thank you!’

‘Noburo!’ A woman shouted, running past them.

‘Mummy!’ The boy shouted, now struggling in Ai’s arms.

‘Is that your mummy?’ Ai asked.

Noburo nodded and Rin ran to the woman. ‘Miss, we have your son. We found him crying.’

The woman sighed in relief and Rin led her over to where Ai was. He handed her son back to her, mother and son both happy now they had been reunited. ‘Thank you.’ She said, kissing her son on the cheek.

‘Look, mummy! Fishy!’

She smiled at her son and reached into her bag for her purse. ‘I’ll give you some money for it.’

‘No, it’s fine.’ Rin told her. Before she could say another thing, Rin took Ai’s hand and they walked away, heading down the row of stalls lit with paper lanterns.

‘That was really nice of you, senpai.’

‘Anyone would have done the same thing.’

‘Maybe.’ Ai smiled at him, then stood on his tiptoes and kissed Rin’s cheek. Rin’s blushed bright red and Ai giggled, blushing himself.

‘You’re going to pay for that.’ Rin told him, smirking.

‘What?’

Rin let go of Ai’s hand and picked him, throwing him over his shoulder and walking with him like that.

‘Senpai!’ Ai giggled, thumping Rin’s back.

‘If you let me kiss you back, I’ll put you back down.’

‘Okay!’ The grey-haired boy giggled as he was put back down, Rin lowering his face until it was on the same level as Ai’s. Rin smiled at Ai as the boy bit his lip, his blue eyes wide and shining.

‘You’re beautiful, Ai.’

‘Senpai…’

Rin leaned in to kiss him. He had thought about what kissing Ai might feel like. His lips were full and they would so soft against his. He knew this would be Ai’s first kiss, so would the boy squeak in surprise? Or moan? Rin couldn’t wait to find out.

Just as their lips were a millimetre away, a shout interrupted them. ‘Rinrin!’

Rin stood back up straight, scowling at Nagisa. The Iwatobi breaststroke swimmer was waving at Rin from a few stalls down. To his credit, Rei was holding Nagisa back; he, Makoto and Haru all bright red, having seen what Rin and Ai were about to do.

‘Nagisa!’ Makoto shouted. ‘Leave him and Nitori alone.’

‘But, Mako-chan-’

‘No.’ Haru grabbed Nagisa’s arm and steered him away from the two Samezuka swimmers.

‘Sorry about that.’ Rin said, scratching the back of his neck.

‘It’s alright.’ Ai giggled and Rin took his hand again.

‘Come on. I want to win you a teddy, too.’

Rin and Ai walked along the stalls together until they found a teddy that Ai wanted. It was a large shark plushie, its teeth looking the same as Rin’s. The redhead won it, handing the teddy over to his date.

‘Thank you, senpai!’ Ai giggled, hugging Rin.

The redhead smiled down at the top of Ai’s head, spotting a caramel apple stand a few stalls down. ‘Come on, let’s get something to eat.’ He led Ai along the sea front down to the caramel apple stand, paying for two.

‘Can we sit down to eat them, senpai? The beach wall looks nice.’

Rin agreed and the two sat on the wall that separated the beach from the street. The sun was just beginning to set as they ate, Ai babbling away despite the caramel gluing his teeth together. Rin smiled as his date chattered on, a large smile on his face, some caramel sticking onto Ai’s pale cheek. Rin waited until they had both finished eating before bringing his hand up to Ai’s face. He tried to wipe off the caramel with his finger, but it wouldn’t move. Instead, Rin placed his lips over the sweet spot, licking and sucking the caramel away.

Ai was blushing; squeaking and moaning as Rin touched him. He felt like he would fall over if he hadn’t been sat down already.

Once he was sure he’d gotten the caramel off, Rin pulled away, smirking when he saw how red Ai had gone. ‘You alright?’

The grey-haired boy just nodded, unable to say anything.

‘Come here.’ Rin pulled Ai even closer towards him and hooked one finger under his chin, turning his face towards him. The redhead leaned down and finally kissed him on the lips, Ai squeaking in surprise. He tensed and then relaxed against Rin, giving into the kiss. He had been wanting this ever since his first day at Samezuka but never thought Rin would even notice him. Ai pulled away first, still in shock, but he was smiling.

Rin was grinning back at him, glad that he finally noticed his little kohai.

**Author's Note:**

> http://lilacchocolate.tumblr.com/


End file.
